From yesterday's Oklahoman:
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit in federal court Wednesday against local television station KOKH-25, alleging racial and gender discrimination against one of its on-air reporters.
The lawsuit accuses KOKH LLC and parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. of paying crime reporter Phyllis Williams a lower salary than comparable white female reporters and male reporters of all races.
Williams, who is black, has worked at the Fox affiliate since it began news operations in 1996.
The lawsuit also alleges Williams was not offered an employment contract until several months after she filed a discrimination charge with the commission in 2005. Rebecca Stith, a senior trial attorney in the commission's St. Louis, Mo., office, said other reporters at KOKH routinely were offered employment contracts.
So let me get this straight. They pay the news reporters at Channel 25? From watching some of their non-Lauren Richardson broadcasts, I just assumed the reporters were out of work college students who performed their duties for free.
To fix the situation, Channel 25 should do one of three things:
A: Give Phyllis Williams a raise and contract that is equal to or exceeds those of her fellow reporters.
B: Trade Phyllis Williams to KFOR for a reporter to be named later.
C: Fire every reporter at the station except for Lauren Richardson.
The smart, yet somewhat insensitive move would be to choose option C. Since nobody really watches the Channel 25 news, it wouldn't be a big deal if they got rid of all their reporters. Hell, I doubt that anyone would even notice.
Also, doing this would get Lauren Richardson more airtime. We at The Lost Ogle are in agreement that more Lauren would be beneficial to Oklahoma City. Lauren reports the news that we want to see. Stories that show how to (intentionally?) make sexual innuendos at Braum's, and a behind the scenes look as to how attractive girls attempt to hide their anger whenever they fall off a log and get wet at the State Fair.
